“Why not? I know where she lives, and I’m confident I can hack into her computer.”
Hawk pensively stared out the window before responding. “If you think you can hack in, I’ll do it. But if she is being straight with us, I’d hate to implicate her.”
“We’ll all go down together if that’s the case. But the reality is you and I will get jailed—or worse—no matter what because we’ve already been branded as traitors.”
“At this point, I don’t think we really have a choice.”
“Great. Let’s do it while she’s at work tomorrow morning.”
Access to Jennifer’s apartment required a key card, making their operation dependent upon sneaking in with an unsuspecting resident. Alex had visited Jennifer there before and explained to Hawk that it was a complex full of working professionals.
“We’ll need to find someone who rarely leaves the apartment to pull this off,” Hawk said. “Think you can dig up a list of tenants?”
“You bet,” Alex said.
A half hour later, she had a list of all the tenants and their ages. Hawk and Alex studied them before agreeing that Betty Norton, an eighty-five-year-old widow who lived on the same floor as Jennifer, was the best way into the building. A quick online search found that Mrs. Norton spent plenty of time using social media and apparently loved her poodle and several cats.
***
THE NEXT MORNING, Hawk and Alex both donned clothes that looked close enough to delivery uniforms to fool an elderly lady. Hawk admitted that he hated tricking Mrs. Norton, but it was all about the cause and ultimately wouldn’t harm her.
After parking along the road in front of the apartment, Alex went to work, putting the security cameras on a one-hour loop.
“We’ve got sixty minutes,” she said. “Let’s get moving.”
Hawk entered Mrs. Norton’s number and waited.
“Hello?” she said as she answered.
“Mrs. Norton, this is Mike from FedEx. I have a package for you.”
She hesitated. “I-I wasn’t expecting a package. Who is it from?”
“The label doesn’t say, just an address,” Hawk answered.
“Well, I don’t want it then.”
Hawk sighed and thought quickly. “Oh, wait. The side of the box has the logo of a pet store on it.”
“Well, all right. I guess you can bring it up. Just leave it outside my door.”
“Good thinking,” Alex said as the door buzzed and she followed Hawk inside.
“I was starting to worry that we were going to get stonewalled by her. But . . . cats and dogs. Those little animals hold a power over most people.”
“Cats win . . . because of all the internet videos.”
“Those hold a strange power over everyone.”
They took the elevator to the fifth floor and set the box down at the foot of Mrs. Norton’s door as she requested. Hawk knocked on the door, and they hustled down the hall toward the stairwell. He and Alex waited there until she collected the box and shut the door.
“Okay, it’s safe,” Hawk said, gesturing for Alex to join him.
They walked up to Jennifer’s door, and Hawk picked the lock.
“We’re in,” he said, swinging the door open.
Alex entered Jennifer’s apartment and scanned it for a home computer. In less than a minute, Alex located a tidy desk in the corner containing only a keyboard and a large computer screen.
“We’re down to forty-five minutes,” Hawk said. “Do you think you can find the file in that amount of time?”
“Piece of cake.”
Hawk paced around the room as Alex worked. After a few minutes, he broke the silence. “Is this how you feel when I’m on an op?”
“What? Nervous?”
“I’m anxious. I just want you to finish up so we can get out of here safely.”
“Yep, every single time.”
Alex kept pounding away on the keyboard, making various sounds as she worked. Moans, groans, excited exclamations, pounding the desk. Each time, it made Hawk jump. After his tenth overreaction to a noise she made, Alex looked up and glared at him.
“You need to stop.”
“I know, but all your sounds are making me nervous. We’re down to fifteen minutes now.”
“I’m almost there. Just be patient, okay? And chill out. Besides, I just found the file. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“Great,” Hawk said.
He heard hushed voices and footsteps in the hallway. Quietly, he crept over to the door and looked through the peephole. Outside, a man and a woman, who both appeared to be CIA agents, opened a small case used to hold tools for picking a lock.
Hawk rushed back across the room to Alex. “They’re outside,” he whispered. “We’ve got to hide now.”
“But I’m not quite done copying the file.”
“It’ll have to wait,” Hawk said, grabbing Alex by the arm.
They backed into a closet and kept the door cracked so they could see what was going on. Hawk watched the blue light on the flash drive blinking, indicating it was still copying.
Across the room, Hawk heard the door handle begin to jiggle and click.
CHAPTER 30
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
KARIF FAZIL STEWED AS HE WATCHED a special report on CNN International divulge all the details about the Saudi Arabian special forces raid that killed Malik Bashir and captured his entire cache of weapons. While the information held little new information for Fazil, he felt embarrassment over his inability to detect his initial contacts weren’t Bashir’s men. The fact that they didn’t shoot Fazil on the spot let him know that something out of the ordinary happened that day. Whatever it was, Fazil didn’t care. He’d survived.
It was a sign from Allah that I am to continue waging jihad against the west.
He poured himself a drink and lit a cigar, turning off the television and instead retreating to the balcony overlooking the ocean. The sun sparkled off the waves and almost made him forget what he’d been so upset about.
His phone buzzed. It was Mohammed Nasir, the man who’d volunteered to attend the wedding in Fazil’s place.
“How’s the wedding?” Fazil asked.
“Fine. Maloof isn’t too happy you couldn’t make it.”
Fazil smiled. “I hope you passed along
